SALT LAKE CITY- Utah diving will be competing in the Zone E Championships hoping to qualify for the NCAA Championships. The competition begins this Thursday, Mar.13 and ending Saturday, Mar. 15 at the Cadet Natatorium at the Air Force Academy in Colorado.

There will be eight NCAA qualifying spots up for grabs for both the men and women. The qualifiers will be announced on Saturday.

Last year, Purss became the second diver in Utah history to qualify for the NCAA Men’s Championships. Purss currently holds the school record in platform dives with a career-best score of 362.70. He finished 13th in the prelims in the 1-meter at NCAA's last year (finishing eighth in the consolation final) while finishing 20th in the 3-meter and 24th on the platform.

Other Utes to watch include Merry, who was strong in this meet last year with a sixth-place finish on the three meter and a fifth-place finish on the platform at Zone Championships. Crayne has been strong this year with a sixth-place finish on the one-meter at Pac-12's.

Purss is ranked fourth in the region on the 1-meter and seventh on platform, and Crayne is ninth in the region on the 1-meter and 10th on platform. Merry is sixth in the region on platform.

Live results will be available at divemeets.com.

The men's team will be competing against 12 other teams while the women will be competing against 24 teams including rival BYU and winner of the PAC-12 title Cal. On the men’s side, there are 27 divers who will be competing and on the women’s, 66 divers.

Competition begins on Thursday with the women one-meter prelims at 11 a.m. with finals at 2 p.m. The men's three-meter prelims begin at 5 p.m. with the finals at 6:45 p.m.